where the hell is my fluid going??....

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May 1, 2008 | 11:51 PM

bad_habit59

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Joined: Oct 2007

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where the hell is my fluid going??....

Someone on here helped me diagnose my heater acting up last week, it was due to low rad fluid. Now I keep having to top it up. I don't have a puddle under my truck as far as I can tell, and I just changed the oil and it didn't have any rad fluid in it (it should be white and foamy if there is water in it, right?)

So where the hell could it be going?...

Also, when I filled up my rad overflow today I had some rusty looking film floating on top of the fluid as it rose. Now that I think about it, it is probably oil based if it is floating. Where is this coming from??

May 2, 2008 | 12:42 AM

johnboy427

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Joined: Jan 2005

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From: The Vieux Ford, Kansas

One of the tanks on my radiator leaks a little on the front side, I guess it is a slow enough leak and it is hot enough to where no fluid ever shows up on the ground its just really crusty at the leak and hard to see behind the a/c heat exchanger. I would look the system over really good because after all it has to go somewhere. Check the exhaust for white smoke too you can crack a head although uncommon that leaks into the combustion chamber and it just burns off no milky oil and no leak I had a 1990 mazda B2600i that did that and it was chocking down a gallon a week before it got bad.
-Johnboy

May 2, 2008 | 05:44 AM

ri_truck_guy

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Joined: Jun 2002

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From: Suffolk, VA USA

Sometimes it takes a little bit of circulation to get all the air out the cooling systems when they've been emptied and refilled. If you aren't getting white smoke, the oil is lean, and is runs ok I wouldn't worry too much about it. It doesn't take very much oil to make a film on top of the fluid. It could easily come from a funnel used to fill the system if that same funnel has ever been used for oil ar trans fluid, even if it looks clean.

May 2, 2008 | 08:57 AM

quicklook2

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Joined: May 2004

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From: Lakewood, Ohio

check water pump weep hole.

May 2, 2008 | 11:15 AM

guitarnik

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Joined: Aug 2006

Posts: 813

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From: foristell, missouri

when the truck id running, put your hand behind the tailpipe and if it gets damp or moist with water you might be leaking into your heads somewhere. thats what happend to mine.

May 2, 2008 | 02:30 PM

qman

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Joined: Sep 2004

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If you have a small puff of white smoke coming out the tail pipe that vanishes quickly, then it's leaking into your heads.

I had a problem with loosing coolant and it turned out that I needed a new radiator cap. I'd fill it up and then I'd smell coolant when I shut it off. One day I opened the hood and it looked like the stuff was oozing out from between one of the tanks and the core. I figured the radiator needed to be rebuilt. For the heck of it I bought a new cap and now all is well. My guess is that the old cap was letting the coolant from the overflow bottle into the radiator but not back out. Now I don't have a problem.